Two Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists and a member of our advisory board have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Jeffrey Long is a senior faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division, and C. Judson King Distinguished Professor of chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Berkeley. Long’s research focuses on the design and precision synthesis of inorganic materials and molecules with new and improved functions. His work advances our understanding of chemistry and physics and develops unique materials for a variety of applications, including quantum computing, gas storage, water purification, and energy technologies.

Long obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard and UC Berkeley. He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1997 and the Berkeley Lab Materials Science Division in 2003, becoming a senior faculty scientist in 2009. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.

Don Tilley is a senior faculty scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab and the PMP Tech Chancellor’s Chair in chemistry at UC Berkeley.

Tilley’s lab designs and studies novel organic and inorganic molecules to develop materials with new chemical properties for applications in sustainable fuel and alternative energy production, chemical production, electronics, and optics.

Tilley received his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, then did a postdoctoral National Science Foundation Exchange program at the California Institute of Technology and ETH Zurich. He joined the UC San Diego chemistry faculty before moving to UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab in 1994. Tilley was previously elected as an American Chemical Society Fellow in 2014.

In addition, Jo Handelsman, a longtime member of Berkeley Lab’s Advisory Board was elected. Handelsman is the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Handelsman studies the genetic and biochemical processes underlying interactions within plant and human microbiomes. She previously served as the Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019, and is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor.

Also, in February, Berkeley Lab director Mike Witherell was elected to serve on the leadership council of the National Academy of Sciences.

The NAS was founded in 1863 to provide the country with a non-partisan council of scientific and technological leaders who could lend expertise and advice to the government. Every year, a new class of 120-150 members are elected by existing members in recognition of distinguished achievement in their respective fields. There is now a total of 2,565 active American members and 526 international members.

 

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Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.